Gnome default web browser

Gnome default web browser

[Daniel Hatton]

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I hope non-Guix-specific questions aren't against the rules here - sorry 
if they are.

I have the default web browser in Gnome's default apps set to IceCat. 
How do I get Gnome to pass a command-line option to IceCat, please? 
(Specifically, I want --profileManager)

-- 

Kind regards,

Dan Hatton

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Re: Gnome default web browser

[Felix Lechner via]

Hi Daniel,

On Wed, Nov 20 2024, Daniel Hatton wrote:

> I hope non-Guix-specific questions aren't against the rules

All questions are game but a forum of Gnome users will usually provide
better advice.  Some topics intersect with the way Guix installs
software.

> How do I get Gnome to pass a command-line option to IceCat, please?

I think you may want to modify the *.desktop file (or install your own).

Kind regards
Felix

Re: Gnome default web browser

[Daniel Hatton]

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On 20/11/2024 14:18, Felix Lechner wrote:

> I think you may want to modify the *.desktop file (or install your own).

I think it just became a Guix-specific question, because I have a whole 
bunch of different 
$HOME/.local/share/applications/userapp-IceCat-*.desktop files; it looks 
like the guix package manager is generating a new one every time there's 
a version upgrade of IceCat.  So, there's a now an issue of how I make 
sure any changes I make to the desktop file survive future version upgrades.

(I've also discovered I have a $HOME/.config/autostart/icecat.desktop 
which doesn't point to the latest installed version of the executable, 
which is going to be a whole other bunch of headaches.)



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Re: Gnome default web browser

[Daniel Hatton]

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On 20/11/2024 14:18, Felix Lechner wrote:

> I think you may want to modify the *.desktop file (or install your own).

You mean $HOME/.guix-profile/share/applications/icecat.desktop ?  That's 
a symlink to a symlink to something in /gnu/store on which I don't have 
write permission.  Is it safe to delete the symlink and make my own, 
editable, copy of the target file in its place?



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Re: Gnome default web browser

[Luis Felipe]

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Hi Daniel,

On 20/11/24 18:07, Daniel Hatton wrote:
> On 20/11/2024 14:18, Felix Lechner wrote:
>
>> I think you may want to modify the *.desktop file (or install your own).
>
> I think it just became a Guix-specific question, because I have a 
> whole bunch of different 
> $HOME/.local/share/applications/userapp-IceCat-*.desktop files; it 
> looks like the guix package manager is generating a new one every time 
> there's a version upgrade of IceCat.  So, there's a now an issue of 
> how I make sure any changes I make to the desktop file survive future 
> version upgrades.

For what it's worth, I use Guix System with GNOME, and I also use 
IceCat, but I don't have any desktop file related to IceCat in that 
location. There were some desktop files starting with "userapp-" but all 
were obsolete (programs I no longer use). I don't know why they were 
there nor what created them. But some of them did point to binaries in 
the /gnu/store and had a comment in my system language that indicates 
that they were autogenerated (e.g. «Comment=Definición personalizada 
para Evolution»).



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Re: Gnome default web browser

[Luis Felipe]

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On 1/12/24 17:44, Daniel Hatton wrote:
> On 20/11/2024 14:18, Felix Lechner wrote:
>
>> I think you may want to modify the *.desktop file (or install your own).
>
> You mean $HOME/.guix-profile/share/applications/icecat.desktop ? 
> That's a symlink to a symlink to something in /gnu/store on which I 
> don't have write permission.  Is it safe to delete the symlink and 
> make my own, editable, copy of the target file in its place?

I'm not Felix, but, as far as I know, there's no user-friendly way in 
GNOME to indicate commands like "icecat --profileManager %u" as a 
default application. However, I tried the following procedure in Guix 
System and it worked:

 1. Add a custom application (a .desktop file) to your home directory.
    For example to ~/.local/share/applications/gatonival.desktop
 2. Add your new application to the list of default applications in
    ~/.config/mimeapps.list
    (https://help.gnome.org/admin/system-admin-guide/stable/mime-types-application-user.html.en)
 3. Select GatoNival as your default web browser in GNOME Settings

The gatonival.desktop file in (1) contained the following:

#+begin_example
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=GatoNival
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
Exec=icecat --profileManager %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=icecat
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;x-scheme-handler/chrome;video/webm;application/x-xpinstall;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=Icecat
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;

[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=icecat -new-window

[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=Open a New Private Window
Exec=icecat -private-window
#+end_example

In my case, ~/.config/mimeapps.list already existed. I replaced all 
occurrences of "icecat.desktop" with "gatonival.desktop".

I don't use Guix home yet, but I imagine those two files could be 
managed with it (?).

Hope that helps.


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